Where Colleen describes and complains about her knitting (and sewing and bobbin lace and children and husband....)

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Embroidery Chugs Along

Here are some pictures from last week. I've done one more hex than this...two more to go!

3 complete hexes. I expect to go back, when the whole thing is done, and tweak some of the flowers, for balance.

I just love the potential when just the stems are embroiderd.

The red flowers are my favorites. I wish I could make all the flowers red, but then they wouldn't show up and be special.

Except for occasionally blowing it in size of flowers, this is going pretty well. Well, also except for when I try to end off a leaf stitch and pull it though. Ending of silk ribbon is Not Fun. The ends of ribbon on the back have to be stitched together with regular sewing thread, just weaving them in doesn't work, they are large, flat, slippery, and bulky, especailly if twisted or knotted. So they get carefully trimmed and overlapped, then sewn together. I start by leaving a tail on the right side, then, when I'm done, I pull that to the back, and stitch the ends to the underside. But sometimes I pull the wrong bit, and instead of a tail popping to the back, the tip of a leaf stitch drops back. A leaf stitch is what I used most, you lay the ribbon along the surface of the work, and then poke the needle through the ribbon, forming that little fold at the tip of the leaf or petal. But if you poke it through to the back it's ugly! And undoing it is hard, because the ribbon is stitched through itself, there is a hole and a folded knot-like loop. If I'm VEEEERY careful, sometimes I can use a blunt needle to loosen it and undo it, and then if I'm even more careful, I can restitch it. Sometimes.

This means that after I undid and redid the leaf stitch that I just yanked on, when I went to end it off, yanking on it again meant a cup of tea before proceeding. I hate when I make the same mistake several times in a row. At least my grandmother (Grandma Downstairs) taught me that when those feelings happen, I should stop my work and go make tea. Grandma got me addicted to caffeine when I was about 10 and she was teaching me to sew! I distinctly remember the first really nasty sewing machine jam I got, and I was getting frustrated, clearing it, so she made me stop and have tea with her. Those were two of the best things she taught me...to clear the jams (notice she wasn't doing the clearing?) and tea!

Next up will be drawing the last two hexagons! I'm getting faster at these flowers, they should be done in a few days, and I can cut out the tallit itself!

About Me

I am raising 4 kids, 2 of each. The whole family does 18th Century Revolutionary War Reenacting, the Husband enjoys drilling the guys, oldest daughter portrays a boy fifer, oldest son is a gentilhomme cadet (in our French unit), second daughter is an apprentice seamstress and we do lots and lots of historical research. I'm currently looking at knitted artifacts...fascinating!